Doraemon Movie 07: Nobita to Tetsujin Heidan (original) (raw)

My overall take: Not without flaws, but remembered as one of the most emotional Doraemon movies for good reason.

Ah yes, the one where a handful of kids and their robot babysitter fight an unwinnable battle against alien war machines that want to enslave humanity. This film is known as one of the most emotionally charged Doraemon movies, and it certainly lives up to its reputation. The heroes' increasing desperation against the overwhelming numbers of the robot army, the robot spy Riruru's change in perspective and eventual decision to sacrifice herself to end the war, and Shizuka's reaction to the latter are all pretty effective emotional... beats.

This is a very strong entry in the franchise, though it does have some flaws. Probably the most obvious to me is the contrived way in which Shizuka gets drawn into the main plot. About halfway through the movie, the main characters (sans Shizuka) decide they need to enter a mirror dimension. To do so, they require a sufficiently large, still reflective surface to act as a portal, so Nobita gets the brilliant idea to use... Shizuka's bathtub for this purpose. Hold on a second—you could have used your own damn bathtub, Nobita! What's more, he chooses not to inform Shizuka about this "for her protection"... but if there's anything well known about Shizuka's character, it's that taking baths is one of her favorite hobbies. Naturally, she discovers the portal while the others are away, goes through it, and nearly meets her end at the hands of killer robots that are trapped on the other side. Well done, Nobita.

Given that the ending involves the robot army being wiped from existence through the alteration of history, it has been pointed out that the main characters shouldn't retain any memory of the events of this movie. This is a clear example where the emotional resonance of the story is intended to take precedence over strict logic, however, so it's not something that damages my enjoyment of the film very much.